Centre to set up steel silos to store rice for a longer period

The central government will set up steel silos of 11 million tonne (mt) to store rice for one-two years longer and avoid cereal wastage without waiting for the result of a pilot project.

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) discussed this issue with the Food Minister during a video conference. The Managing Director of Lotus Harvestec Private Limited, Munishwar Vasudeva, said that initially, a minimum five mt capacity would be set to store rice.

These steel silos will be set up across 13 states in about 250 sites, with 5,000 tonne capacity. Vasudeva said that during the first phase, 45-47 site locations would be identified to set up these silos by December.

According to a statement, FCI has given a target to set up rice silos of 1.25 lakh tonne capacity, while the state has a target of 7.5 lakh tonne capacity.

Its pilot project is being executed by the National Collateral Management Services Limited (NMCL) at Kaimur and Buxar in Bihar. According to this, FCI is setting up joint wheat and rice silo complexes with 50,000 tonne capacity.

Both the sites will have three wheat silos of 12,500 tonne capacity each and four rice silos of 3,125 tonne capacity each. FCI will import wheat from other regions for distribution there, and rice will be procured locally and stored before use.

FCI has constructed 5.5 lakh tonne of wheat silos, while the target is to store 10 mt of wheat on a build, own and operate basis under private-public partnerships (PPPs). From this, FCI will own 2.9 mt, states will own 6.85 mt and the rest to the Central Warehousing Corporation.

FCI has received a recommendation from the panel to construct flat bottom silos, which will cost less and be easy to operate and maintain. It will cost 1.4 times the cost of constructing a wheat silo. Rice silos will cost more and additional cost for chilling the towers and providing more space.

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